I've been a programmer for 15 years. This book confirms all the hunches about the right way to do things, and displays a lot of the things good practicing programmers learn the hard way. It could easily be titled 'The Professional Programmer' and is required understanding for those who claim to be one. You can learn it the hard way, or read it here. Of course, you still have to put it into practice. Great book.

This is definitely a beginners book. The first four chapters, which are an introduction to the basics about file management and shells is the best part. In particular chapter three, about the file system, is excellent. The later chapters tend to get a little too heavy a bit too quickly for my taste. But they cover their content and do it thoroughly.The Fink coverage, as with OS X for Unix Geeks, is too light. This is an important utility for those that want to use OS X as a Unix machine and it deserves more coverage than it got.Overall the book is a good introduction and reference, but it is light on opinion. There are lots of ways to work and to organize stuff in Unix flavored operating systems and the book gives little in the way of advice or opinion. Which is sad, but not unusual. I can't penalize the book for that though. I just wish that more technical books would state opinions from experience.

I used the previous Certification Guide to prepare for the #604-607 Exam in early 2003. I succeeded in getting a 936, and I credit that book with helping me focus and review. This book is the latest edition, and the recommended book to use in review in the last weeks before the current CCNA Exam.I would advise all Exam hopefuls to take the wealth of material seriously! That means 'No Single Text' can take you through all 4 semesters-worth of the curriculum. What this book, and many others in the Cisco series do well is remind and focus you in on what Cisco (they publish the book and the test) expect you to know for the exam. So, if there is deep coverage of a subject you didn't consider important, you'd better bone up on that chapter. If there is scant coverage or no coverage of a subject, then maybe you should just review what the book shows, and spend the bulk of your time on other chapters.What the book does not do is take you from novice to CCNA level. THAT'S NOT IT'S PURPOSE. The writer expects you to be either:- in the industry with significant experience, and knowledgeable of the concepts and Cisco IOS, with access to Cisco equipment, needing a text to review, or- a Cisco Network Academy student, with access to Cisco equipment, and successful with the Academy curriculum, or- a student with other Networking knowledge that has access to Cisco equipment (or simulator) who wants to get Cisco's spin on what they believe they already know.In other words, don't think you can walk in from the street, pick up this book, and suddenly know all that you need to pass the test. However, IF YOU DO BUY ONE CISCO BOOK TO PREPARE FOR THE CCNA EXAM, IT SHOULD BE THIS ONE! Purchase it as close to the exam date as you can.

In this book Hunt and Thomas have compiled a collection of 70 tips, thoughts, and techniques that are a must-study for every programmer regardless of skill or experience.The tips cover all programming topics. Issues include programming style, languages, time management, planning, customer relationships, and spotlights on the project lifecycle. Some of the tips in the book seem obvious, but are often forgotten even by experienced programmers. Some tips are things that I initially was surprised by, but after reading the thorough explanation the topic came to light and became clear.This is a good book that can be read off and on in sections, picked up at any time for a quick refresher on good programming.I would heartily recommend this book for all programmers, whether you're a casual dabbler in VB, a web perl scripter, or you write unix system utilities in C.